Led · Equity · Oct 2024

Kando provides a solution that leverages proprietary machine learning models trained on in-house IoT wastewater data to optimize wastewater quality management. The platform enables significant cost savings, enhances wastewater reuse, and supports sustainable urban water management in cities across the US and Europe. The company intends to use the new funds to drive global expansion, focusing on the US and Europe. Kando raised $10M in the latest round, bringing total capital raised to $30M. The company is based in Tel Aviv and was founded by Zohar Scheinin and Ari Goldfarb. Kando develops an end-to-end wastewater smart management solution combining hardware, cloud software and expert services to monitor key wastewater quality parameters in real time. Its core product is a cloud-based SaaS platform that tracks and reports wastewater collection-system metrics and supports big-data analytics. The company says it will use new funding for product and business development and to continue improving its monitoring and analytics tools. Kando was founded in 2011 by CEO Ari Goldfarb and employs a team of about 20 industry veterans across environmental, chemical and process engineering, project management and software development. The announcement does not disclose revenue or user metrics.

Led · Series C · Jan 2024

Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) develops vertical farming technology and indoor farming systems. The company is pursuing significant global expansion and is partnering with Dubai-based ReFarm to build a 900,000 square foot GigaFarm in the United Arab Emirates. The planned waste-to-value farm is designed to recycle more than 50,000 tonnes of food waste and grow two billion plants each year. IGS intends to deploy its vertical farming technology to customers worldwide as it scales. To support this expansion the company completed a £22.5 million Series C. Leadership changes accompanied the raise, with Andrew Lloyd named CEO and Sonya Hotson appointed full-time CFO and joining the board. Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) develops patented plug-and-play vertical-farming technology and designs and builds controlled-environment farms for food, pharmaceutical and fragrance customers. The company has deployed its technology to customers across four continents and launched its first crop research centre in August 2018. IGS says its sales pipeline has quadrupled in the past 12 months. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Glasgow, the business emphasizes efficiency and simplicity in indoor growing. The company positions its technology to address food security and environmental challenges and aims to scale controlled-environment agriculture through further commercial deployments. Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) is a Scottish indoor AgriTech and Commercial Lighting business that has developed and productised a patented IoT-enabled power and communications platform, including electrical, electronic and mechanical technologies and a ventilation system. The platform is managed by a SaaS and data platform using AI to deliver economic and operational benefits to indoor environments. Led by CEO David Farquhar, IGS has prepared its technologies for commercial deployments. IGS completed the second and final close of its Series A with £1.6M, bringing the total Series A to £7M. The £1.6M comprised £1.5M from Ospraie Ag Science and an additional £100K from AgFunder; existing Series A investors include S2G Ventures and the Scottish Investment Bank. The funding is intended to expand IGS's market presence through global sales operations for both AgriTech and Commercial Lighting. Demand for its systems is reported as high, with first deployments expected in early 2020. Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) supplies plug-and-play vertical farming technology to indoor farms to enable efficient food production in any location. Led by CEO David Farquhar, the company opened its first vertical farming demonstration facility in August 2018. IGS has seen global interest and mounting orders for its patented technologies. The company raised £5.4m in a Series A funding round to support growth. Proceeds will be used to create jobs in software development, engineering, robotics and automation and to increase product development. IGS plans continued innovation in AI, big data and the Internet of Things. The company also intends to expand global marketing, sales and customer support teams across three continents.

Participated · Series E · Jul 2018

Trax delivers image-recognition and retail analytics products including shelf monitoring, merchandising, activation, and shopper engagement solutions to improve in-store execution. The company is developing Signal-Based Merchandising, a new solution that leverages its computer vision, shopper audience, and crowd merchandising scale. Trax highlights AI-powered solutions, autonomous data collection methods, and on-demand merchandising capabilities as core innovation areas. Its platform enables customers to understand and improve what is happening on the shelf in every store. Trax serves 32 of the top 50 CPG brands worldwide. The company operates globally with hubs in the United States, Singapore, Israel, Hungary, Beijing, and Mexico and is focused on growth and a path to profitability in 2024. Trax provides a cloud-based retail analytics platform that combines proprietary computer vision, machine learning, IoT-enabled cameras, robots and smartphone images to track shelf availability, pricing and planogram compliance. Its flagship product, Retail Watch, gathers real-time shelf data, sends low-stock alerts, corrects pricing errors and supports online ordering and store fulfillment; Trax plans to expand Retail Watch into fresh food and produce. The company also develops Dynamic Merchandising (a partnership with Flexforce and Shopkick) and Dynamic Workforce Management, and acquired the Shopkick rewards app in 2019. Trax says it serves customers in more than 90 countries and operates offices across Asia, the Americas and Europe. The new funding will be used to invest in global go-to-market strategies, accelerate growth, triple-down on R&D across vision, machine learning, IoT and marketplace technologies, and expand use cases internally and via potential acquisitions. Reports have surfaced about a possible IPO, but CEO Justin Behar declined to comment. Trax is a retail technology company that uses computer vision to help brands understand how their products look, perform and compete on the shelf. It works with consumer goods companies such as Nestle and Henkel and with retailers to track in-store product performance. In 2017 Trax began a partnership with Nielsen to digitize the shelf and provide more frequent, accurate measurement of product representation and its influence on sales. The company is headquartered in Singapore but conducts the majority of its research and development out of Israel. According to reports, Trax raised $100 million from China-based Hopu Investments at a $1.2 billion pre-money valuation, a round that was reported to make it Singapore's second unicorn. Since its founding in 2010, Trax has raised nearly $387 million in total; previous backers include Warburg Pincus and DC Thomson Ventures. Trax builds a computer vision platform that processes in‑store photos taken with mobile devices to deliver granular shelf- and store-level insights, used for in-store execution, market measurement and data science. The company serves Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands and retailers and operates in over 50 countries with more than 175 client engagements. Trax has partnered with Nielsen to offer a Shelf Intelligence Suite that helps brands measure and improve shelf strategy and execution. It is also engaged in digital transformation pilot projects with global retailers to provide continuous shelf tracking using wireless IoT cameras. The company intends to use new funding to support global expansion and accelerate mass-market deployment of its retail solutions, with a core area of expansion in Greater China. To date, Trax has raised approximately US$235M in total financing. Trax is a Singapore-based provider of computer vision solutions for retail that processes in-store photos to deliver granular, store-level insights within minutes. Led by CEO Joel Bar-El and CCO Dror Feldheim, the company combines fine-grained recognition, machine learning and data collection methods to build a proprietary retail database and analytics products. Its main offerings are Retail Execution (mobile shelf capture and real-time corrective-action reporting), the Shelf Intelligence Suite by Trax and Nielsen (continuous retail measurement), and Retail Watch (real-time store monitoring to reduce stockouts and improve planogram compliance). Trax serves over 175 clients in more than 50 countries, including Coca-Cola, AB InBev, Nestle, Henkel and PepsiCo. The company raised $64m in funding led by Warburg Pincus and intends to use the proceeds to continue innovation and expand operations across its core markets: the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Participated · Equity · Jun 2016

CogBooks offers an adaptive learning platform enabling publishers, universities and OER providers to create personalized learning experiences with measurable impact. The company is led by CEO Jim Thompson and its team includes Martin Reynard (CFO), Hank Bowman (VP of Academic Partnerships) and Vivek Sambaiah (CTO). CogBooks raised £1.25m in funding to support its operations. The funds are intended to accelerate the company’s expansion in the UK and US higher education markets. The company’s product targets improved personalization and measurable learning outcomes for higher-education customers. No operating metrics were reported in the article. CogBooks builds an adaptive learning platform that intelligently personalizes learning for each student in real time to improve learning outcomes and retention. The platform can be used as a massive-scale stand-alone online learning solution or integrated with customers’ existing systems such as MOOCs or Learning Management Systems. Led by CEO Jim Thompson, CogBooks has been pioneering adaptive learning technology for over ten years and has been highly rated in reports commissioned by the Gates Foundation. The company serves publishers and institutions in the US and UK post-secondary education market, including Edinburgh University and the OCR exam board. CogBooks raised £1.75m and intends to use the funds to extend its international reach. The company is based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Led · Series D · Sep 2014

Carta Worldwide develops a digital transaction processing platform and technology stack for building, deploying and managing transaction solutions. The company is a certified Third Party Processor with MasterCard and Visa and is PCI-DSS compliant. Carta has invested over $50 million in development of its platform and began development in 2007. It serves clients in financial services, telecom and retail across four continents. The company maintains offices in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Morocco and operates two data centers in Canada and Europe. Brian Semkiw serves as CEO.